The present invention is directed to a mobile, collapsible drilling rig base and platform to support rotating drilling equipment. More specifically, the retractable base may be either telescoping or hinged to extend from a width suitable for transport by truck to the fill width necessary to support and stabilize a platform and a mast or derrick in the field.
The design of rotating drilling rigs has in the past required the employment of a substantial number of trucks carrying the substructures of the drilling rig to the field. Further, substantial assembly of the substructures of the rig in the field has been required to provide a base, the rotating equipment platform and the derrick. Therefore, heavy equipment such as cranes or lifts were required at the rig site to handle the substructures.
Patents illustrating the prior art are:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,594,847 discloses a portable drilling rig substructure capable of being dismantled into a plurality of units or sections which can be loaded on a minimum number of trailers or trucks.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,594,847 discloses a portable drilling rig substructure capable of being dismantled into a plurality of units or sections which can be loaded on a minimum number of trailers or trucks.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,852,111 discloses a skid mounted, hydraulically lifted platform transportable in lowered position at a height to permit passage under bypasses, bridges, and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,136,394 discloses a portable oil well drilling apparatus, in which a mast and drawworks are mounted on the same trailer and may be transported by it, in which the mast may readily be transferred from that trailer when necessary for lightening the load, and in which the drawworks can be raised from a low position on the trailer to a high position at the level of the floor of a tall substructure.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,228,151 discloses an oil well drilling apparatus which is suitable for very deep drilling, which has a tall substructure made of a minimum number of parts that are easy to assemble at ground level with oridinary oil field equipment, which does not require the drawworks and engines to be lifted to the top of a tall substructure, which does not require the use of ramps or the like in erecting the mast, which permits the substructure and the mast to be erected by the drawworks without the use of a gin pole, and in which the erection of the substructure and mast is effected easily and rapidly.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,504,749 discloses a forwardly inclined drawworks mounted on the front end of a horizontal skid frame that also supports one or more engines in a forwardly inclined position. The frame is skidded up a ramp supported by the back of a tall substructure until the frame is flat against the ramp with the drawworks upright at the top of the substructure and the engines upright below and behind the drawworks. The inclinded frame is detachably connected to the ramp.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,361 discloses a transportable support structure for a drilling mast and drawworks that includes spaced longitudinally extending members with lateral brace members extending therebetween to provide a support structure for a gin pole support and a drilling mast as well as an elevatable drawworks support structure which is pivotally secured to the transportable support structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,593 discloses a drilling rig that comprises a trailerable telescoping mast assembly and a separate sectionable substructure assembly therefor comprising a rig base, a working floor mounted in spaced relation above the base and a rig extension extending outwardly from the drawworks side of the rig base.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,009,544 and 4,024,924 disclose a structural base for a drilling rig that has sufficient longitudinal rigidity, and still supports the mast, while in a horizontal position, at a level close to the top surface of the ground. The rig has a working table or floor, of requisite height, which supports the rotary table, and which is narrower than the base of the mast and can be positioned on the structural base either before or after the nast is in position, and whether the mast is in a lowered or a raised position. The table structure is broken into a plurality of parts, each of which are fitted into the structural base and can be assembled in a lowered position and then rotated and raised into the final operating position. When the mast is in a raised position, additional support for the mast is provided by an A frame which is behind the mast and serves as a means for raising the mast by cable means over a pulley at the top of the A frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,237 discloses a compact sectionalized drilling mast, power arrangement and support means therefor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,241 discloses a drilling installation comprising a base which rests on the ground, a rig, a winch, items of equipment such as a drill-pipe storage coffer, and a working floor which is raised above the base, surrounding the rig.
The present invention is directed to a drilling rig base and a lower mast section that are collapsible into a compact transportable position. The base is expandable in the field to support a drilling platform and all necessary equipment, and the telescoping mast is also expanable for supporting the crown block and cables of the drawworks. More specifically, the rig of the present invention has a base having a plurality of beams, the outer beams being collapsible to a transportable position for placing on a single truck or trailer, and the A-frame lower mast section which is collapsible to a transportable position for placing on a single truck or trailer.